Ifeanyi Izeze
“The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is like a demon; that PIB thing,
there are people both inside and outside the country, who would work
against it, but it is going to take the strength of our patriotism to
pass it and; by the grace of God, when we resume, we will start work on
the Petroleum Industry Bill.” This affirmation by the Senate President
Ahmad Lawan is both funny and at the same time commendable though with
serious caveat.
When he said that there are forces within and outside the country
working desperately to frustrate the consideration and passage of the
Petroleum Industry Bill presently before the National Assembly, he was
very correct but by half. The other half he failed to say was that the
forces within which are all Nigerians had been a bigger stumbling block
simply because of lack of the will-power to be honest to take unfeigned
unbiased and patriotic stance.
Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, over 80 percent of the
identified “forces within” are mainly domiciled in the two chambers
of the National Assembly and being prompted by the remaining less that
10 percent tribal warlords and self- appointed sectional thinkers who
feel that restructuring the legal framework guiding the oil industry
would be detrimental to the interests of their region.
The forces outside the country are well known- the foreign transnational
oil companies that prefer the existing negatively skewed policies that
criminally favour only the operators.
Agreed that forces outside the country with interests in our oil and gas
business have covertly worked against any reworking of the legal
framework guiding the sector, it is a shame that for over 20 years, our
National Assembly still grapples with a legislation to bring better
governance and highly needed transparency to Nigeria’s most important
economic sector.
The main purpose of the PIB as concieved is to make the nation’s oil
sector investment-friendly for both local and foreign investors with
attendant economic gains for the country in terms of enhanced revenues.
Through it, the required competitive environment will be provided for
businesses to grow and investors will make their gains as well as
Nigerians getting value for their monies and government getting more
revenues.
There have been failed attempts by previous Assemblies to pass this
piece (s) of legislation. In the case of the Seventh Assembly, the lower
legislative chamber passed the bill but the senate failed to concur with
it.
The National Assembly in its wisdom believed that the Petroleum Industry
Bill (PIB) as originally packaged was too ambiguous and decided to break
the document into bits and pieces to make it more manageable and
effective. And apart from content issues with prior versions, one of the
major drawbacks to passage as claimed by the lawmakers was the bogus
packaging as a single legal instrument.
The Eight Assembly subsequently broke the PIB into five components and
passed the petroleum industry governance bill (PIGB) but President
Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign the bill, citing some constitutional
reasons.
The PIB is one heck of a legislation that not only Nigeria but the
entire world is waiting – because that will completely change the
Nigerian economy. Money will start flowing.
As a result, the original document was split into four (4) smaller bits:
Petroleum Industry (Governance and Institutional Framework) Bill;
Petroleum Industry (Fiscal framework and Reforms) Bill; Petroleum
Industry (Upstream Administration Reforms) Bill; Petroleum Industry
(Downstream Administration Reforms) Bill and; Petroleum Industry
(Revenue Allocation and Management Reforms) Bill.
Listening to the Senate President, someone would assume that his 9th
Senate was passing the totality of the PIB document into law. No, this
is not it. He was only talking about the PIGB which is only one of the
five pieces of legislation that emerged from the split of the original
document.
Is anybody still pretending not to know that one of the major challenges
facing the petroleum industry in this country is host community and
Niger Delta issues? How do you then reconcile the fact that in the five
resultant pieces of the original PIB, no single mention was specifically
made of the “Host Community Fund” as initially agreed though it is
assumed that the fourth bill (Revenue Allocation and Management Bill)
may address issues of the funds for the development of oil producing
communities?
Curiously also, the perceived mischief in all these is that, the Revenue
Allocation and Management Bill which is believed should address issues
of the oil producing host communities fund was either by omission or
deliberate mischief placed as the last of the bits of documents to be
discussed by the Senate. And whether they are right or wrong, some
concerned people of the Niger Delta are believing that the logic is to
serve the controversial consideration of the interests of oil field
communities last with the hope that the hurdle will never be reached
within the life of this government or that the controversy would have
died of its own accord by such a time.
Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, the Niger Delta people are
already seeing the actions of the National Assembly as a calculated move
aimed at making laws for the smooth governance of exploitation and
exploration of the abundant oil reserve within the region without any
consideration of the interests of host communities that have been
criminally battered by years of deliberate marginalisation and neglect
by the federal government in addition to the devastating effects of the
continued irresponsible operational practices of the oil companies.
Though it may be wrong to believe that prioritising and singling out of
the PIGB to be passed first was a calculated move aimed at making laws
for the smooth governance of exploitation and exploration of the Niger
Delta region against the interest of the people, as affirmed by
concerned interest groups, the National Assembly should know, if they
want to be sincere to themselves, that to calm frayed nerves and ensure
peace and hitch-free oil operation in the country, the bit that
addresses the issue of the proposed special funds for the development of
oil producing communities must be taken up immediately with the urgency
it deserves.
Is it not worrisome that we are talking of over 20 years to pass the
first fragment of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIGB)? And if this pace
is maintained, it will obviously take many more decades for the
remaining four fragments –which will most likely have far reaching
positive effects on the oil communities and the people in the Niger
Delta–to be passed.
The federal government- executive and legislature should know that the
singular passage of the PIGB will not deliver the full benefits of the
intended reforms except the other aspects of the Petroleum Industry Bill
are concurrently legislated upon particularly the aspects that address
fiscal reforms and the concerns of the oil host communities. God bless
Nigeria!